


since nothing has changed me quite like you

by thedarkestgrey



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Awkward Conversations, Ben The Reluctant Jedi, Ben and Rose are BFFs, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Rey (Star Wars), F/F, F/M, HEA, Humor, I tried to write lightsaber fights and it was hard, Inappropriate Erections, Kira Palpatine, Light Angst, Multiple HEA actually, Sarcasm, Smuggler Ben Solo, The Knights of Sidious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23164903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkestgrey/pseuds/thedarkestgrey
Summary: Ben Solo, who is every ounce his fathers son, reluctantly takes up the mantle of Resistance Jedi when his Uncle Luke is nowhere to be found amidst the war against the Emperor's First Order.Kira Palpatine, once a padawan learner know as Rey of Jakku, leads the Knights of Sidious at the behest of her grandfather while the First Order fights against Leia Organa's Resistance.Their respective sides want them to take the other down. Too bad a complicated history and mutual affection continually seems to be getting in the way.
Relationships: Jannah/Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 73
Kudos: 118
Collections: Reylo Charity Anthology: Volume 2, Reylo Hidden Gems





	1. i'm trying to get myself back home, yet

**Author's Note:**

> Hello dear readers! This piece was originally written for the Reylo Charity Anthology Vol. 2 as a one shot. I've decided to break it up while posting it here on AO3 since it runs just short of 10k, which seems excessive for a one shot. TBQH this is not the original story I had planned out for this anthology, I've never been overly confident in my ability to write canonverse when it comes to Star Wars, but then I saw the disaster that was TROS and figured I can't write anything worse than that right? 
> 
> This fic is one of my favorite things I've ever written. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Many thanks to my beta reader weddersins ([twitter](https://twitter.com/weddersins/) & [ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/weddersins/)) for talking me off many mountains and in general being really supportive of all creative choices in this fic. She's one of the real ones y'all.
> 
> fic title from Nothing Is U by Bleachers. I pretty much listened to the album Gone Now on repeat while writing this.

He comes back to consciousness with a dull throb in the back of his head and the scent of sterile cleanliness filling his nose. That smell - he knows it can only mean one thing. 

_The First Order.  
  
_With a groan, Ben tries to force his body up from the awkward horizontal position he’s found himself in, but quickly realizes that he’s strapped down to an interrogation table. He grimaces, tugging upward with wrists held down with a series of locks that he wouldn’t be able to pick even if he was on the other end of them. He leans back, groans. Even if he makes it out of here alive, his mother _will_ inevitably kill him anyway.  
  
Ben had only been trying to do a nice thing for a friend, honest. Rose needed a compressor valve for a ship she was helping restore, and Ben happened to be owed a favor by a junker named Plutt on Jakku. Really, it was just a hop, skip and a jump from D’Qar. The trip shouldn’t have taken more than a few hours tops. Ben was looking for any chance to get off planet these days - the Resistance base wasn’t the most fun place to be, especially for a one-time smuggler like himself.  
  
Turns out the Tico sister’s warnings were _100%_ in the right about taking the Falcon off planet.  
  
“You’re awake,” a feminine modulated voice says from somewhere behind him and Ben groans in annoyance. Of course, they sent her to interrogate him, _who else would it be?_  
  
“Long time, no see sweetheart,” he replies, all bravado and casual cool charm when the masked woman makes her way from the shadows behind the interrogation table to stand before him. He can’t see her face, but he can practically feel her eyes rolling under that poorly fitting black hulking mask she wears now.  
  
“I could kill you with a flick of my wrist, Solo. Do you really think _now_ is the time to be teasing me?” she replies cooly.  
  
Ben shrugs. Or at least he tries to shrug. “It’s part of the Solo charm, kid.”  
  
“I’m sure you know why you’re here by now. My knights and I had all but given up looking for you and your father, figured that General Organa had put to heel the Solo men and their smuggling ways now that the First Order has declared reign of the galaxy. Imagine our surprise when a First Order agent reported the Millennium Falcon on Jakku of all places?”  
  
“Keeping tabs on your old stomping grounds, huh? Once a feral desert rat, always a feral desert rat, or so Uncle Luke used to say.”  
  
Quick as a flash one end of her saberstaff is ignited and aimed far closer to Ben’s jugular than he’s comfortable with. The beam crackles red and hot as his throat bobs anxiously. 

“Where’s Skywalker?” the girl grounds out as she moves the beam mere centimeters closer to flesh and bone. 

Ben scowls at his captor but keeps his mouth shut - maybe for the first time in his life, come to think of it. She brings the beam minutely closer, but then the darksider switches off her blade with a frustrated sigh and latches it back onto her utility belt.   
_  
This is progress_ , Ben thinks, _I can work with this._ “I haven’t seen him in years. We have no idea where he could even be, he never left us any clues about where he was going, just a message telling us that he failed at his job as a master and that he had gone in search of peace.”  
  


A sound Ben can’t quite make out escapes the mask. It sounds like a cross between a sob and a laugh, and he takes him back to a few years prior where he was with the very same person under very different circumstances. It was a happier noise then, while this time it wants to break his heart.  
  
“Funny. Failed is putting it _lightly_.”  
  
Ben doesn’t know exactly what happened at his uncle's Jedi temple; Luke never bothered to explain it in full, just that there was an incident with his favorite student and that she had fled to the First Order in the aftermath.  
  
“Rey,” he starts softly before he’s cut off. She’s not choking him, but instead it feels like she just pulled all his language out of his brain, leaving him unable to communicate.  
  
With a hiss of a latch, she slowly removes the bulky, unnecessary mask that hides her face from the rest of the world. She looks the same as the last time he saw her, down to the trio of looped buns down the back of her head, but somehow, completely different.  
  
In the four years since he had last seen her, she has lost the remaining baby fat from her face, which now all delicate cheekbones with a gently sloped nose. She has grown into her features - and she looks both beautiful and deadly. Rey couldn’t have been more than seventeen the last time he and Han dropped off supplies to Luke’s temple a focusing kyber crystal among them. It had been a gift for their favorite desert rat come-padawan learner, who at the time was getting ready to build her first saber. Ben idly wonders if that same crystal powers the dual sided saber she now fights with.  
  
“It’s Kira now, Solo. Kira Palpatine, heir to the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and granddaughter to the great Emperor Palpatine, long may he reign. Rey of Jakku died the night her master told her that he’d been _lying_ to her since he brought her to his temple.”  
  
Whatever hold on the Force Rey had over Ben was suddenly dropped with the weight of her revelation, but he found that he still couldn’t speak regardless of the ability returning to him. His conscious fought with this sudden dump of information - there is no way any of that could be true. The fact that Ben has never known Rey to be anything other than bluntly honest gnawed at his resolve, introducing just the smallest bit of doubt.  
  
“I- Rey… I don’t understand.” Ben is at a complete loss. He watches helplessly as a single tear rolls down the dark sider’s cheek.  
  
“You don’t have to understand, Solo,” she says as she waves her hand over the locks that bind him to the table. Rey stares at him until he scrambles off the table and follows her silently out of the interrogation room to a docking station where his ship sits completely untouched.  
  
Ben looks between Rey and the Falcon once, then twice, before making his way towards the gangway. Rey follows him until he gets to the bottom of the ramp, stopping him with a hand placed on his bicep as he takes his first step up to the ship. 

She’s standing far too close; all up in his personal space while looking at him through sooty lashes with those damned hazel eyes. Those very same eyes that once haunted him in his dreams while his brain chanted _too young_ like a constant melody. Instinctively he leans his head down to her level, hoping against all reason that she’s going to ask him to take her away with him.  
  
Ruby red lips rest close to his ear, a delicate hand finds rest on his chest and he swears she _breathes_ him in before whispering.

“I’m allowing you to leave, on your precious Falcon, with a warning from my grandfather to your mother’s merry band of rebels. The Galaxy is _his_ , just as it has always been, and any attempt from your group of misfits to challenge his rule will only end in the suffering and deaths of all you hold dear. So go to her Solo. Go tell your mother.”  
  
Ben looks down at the girl he once knew and pushes a stray lock of hair behind her ear, causing her to pull away from his touch. He turns to head up the Falcon’s ramp, ignoring the part of him that’s screaming at him to turn back one last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on updating weekly until I have the entire thing posted, it'll be approximately 6 chapters long including the coda. I'll see you all sometime next Monday with chapter 2! Let me know what you think until then!
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/)  
> [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/)


	2. such a rhythm in my life these days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As if on cue, C-3PO pulls a box out from the shelf behind his mother and Poe Dameron’s smirk gets impossibly wider. If they weren’t surrounded by a military command, Ben would have made a rude hand gesture at him, but instead settles for whispering a few select words in Hutteese just loud enough to make the pilot raise an eyebrow. The droid places the box in front of him and Ben doesn’t even bother to open it. He knows exactly what’s in it and obviously everyone else in the room does as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the feedback on this little fic, I'm always blown away by ya'lls response! Here's another update that is hopefully good quarantine/social distancing reading! Stay safe guys!

“She just let you go?” Rose questions in the late hours of the night.  
  
Ben had already delivered the message of Palpatine's return to the Resistance High Command, and the young engineer had hunted him down in his quarters. Ben was sure the rumors were already flying around the base - it was no surprise to him why Rose was so insistent to speak with him.  
  
Ben leans back on his too-small bunk, datapad in hand as it blinks with comm notifications. “Yeah. Gave me the warning and told me to leave.”  
  
Rose nods once solemnly before she grabs a roll of his calligraphy paper and hurls it at his head. Ben ducks just in time.  
  
“What was that for?!”   
  
“We _told_ you not to take the Falcon. And you didn’t listen. You could have died, Ben!” Ben’s taken aback as his best (and maybe only) friend bursts into tears after shouting at him.

Ben’s not entirely sure what to do, now. Crying women are not his forte and never have been. Slowly he reaches out to place a reassuring hand on Rose’s shoulder, but the younger girl launches herself at him instead, getting a mix of tears and snot all over the front of his shirt. His arms hover for a moment before he wraps her in a hug, because _kriff..._ he really _could_ have died today.   
  
“Sorry,” he mumbles as he gives Rose one last squeeze.   
  
The engineer laughs as she wipes the back of her hand across her nose. “I know you Solo men share about one brain cell, but maybe try to use it more efficiently next time.”  
  


* * *

  
“Not a kriffing chance. No way. I’m not doing it,” Ben says resolutely as he leans back in his chair, arms crossed his chest defiantly.   
  
The Resistance High Command are all present today, which includes a variety of familiar faces. These are people he’s known his whole life - mostly because of his mother. Amilyn Holdo rubs two fingers deeply into one of her temples while Admiral Ackbar whispers to one of his fellow Mon Calimari, and for some reason Poe Dameron sits beside him with a smirk that makes Ben frown even deeper. 

“It wasn’t a suggestion, Ben. The First Order has been deploying Kira and her Knights even more frequently, and until someone finds Luke, we really have no other options. We need a Jedi,” his mother replies evenly, employing the same no-nonsense tone she had used on him as a child.   
  
He _feels_ like a child right now. Where the hell is his dad?  
  
“Yeah, and I’m not one. So, problem solved. Let Pops, Chewie and I go look for Uncle Luke, and then you’ll have your Jedi,” he proclaims as he goes to stand up. The look his mother pins him with has him deflating back into his seat faster than the Falcon made the Kessel Run. 

“You have training, Ben; you’re incredibly strong in the Force. The fact that you’ve been able to hide your force signature from everyone for so long is truly remarkable. You even built a saber and if I recall correctly, you’re very proficient in it.”

Ben offers a shrug. “The saber was left back in the house on Chandrila. A smuggler had no real use for a Jedi’s weapon.”

As if on cue, C-3PO pulls a box out from the shelf behind his mother and Poe Dameron’s smirk gets impossibly wider. If they weren’t surrounded by a military command, Ben would have made a rude hand gesture at him, but instead settles for whispering a few select words in Hutteese just loud enough to make the pilot raise an eyebrow. The droid places the box in front of him and Ben doesn’t even bother to open it. He knows exactly what’s in it and obviously everyone else in the room does as well. 

Ben pushes the box away towards his mother, frowning when she pushes it back. Dameron snorts a laugh that quickly turns into a howl of pain when Ben kicks him in the shin. 

“Just _once_ Ben. We’re sending you out with an ace team to a small skirmish, and we want to see what you can do. There’s no reason to even suspect that Kira or any of her knights are going to show up,” his mother states with an air of finality, raising an eyebrow at him in the way he remembers from childhood. When she gets up from the table, the rest of the High Command follows her. 

“Wait a second, _General_ ,” he calls for this mother to turn around. “Who exactly is on this ace team?”

Poe Dameron throws an arm around Ben’s shoulder and offers him a hand, eyes twinkling with delight.   
  


* * *

  
One skirmish quickly turns to two, then three, then four. Before Ben knows it, he’s spending more time off planet, tucked away into a ship roughly the size of the Falcon with a team he begrudgingly admits is actually… pretty good. 

Somehow Poe convinced the General to allow both Tico sisters, an operations controller named Kaydel Ko Connix and a dark-skinned Resistance newcomer named Finn to be a part of the team. Somewhere after Ben has lost count of how often they have been off base, Rose explains to him in hushed tones that Finn was a First Order defector, a former stormtrooper who helped Poe out of a tight spot some months ago. 

“Oh,” he says in reply before he notices the way that Rose eyes their newest friend. “Hmm.”

“Hmm what Ben Solo?” 

Ben puts up two hands defensively. “Nothing, definitely _not_ me noticing _you_ making loth-cat eyes at Finn.”

Rose sputters and turns red but can’t manage to actually deny the statement. She slaps Ben on the chest and he feigns injury before tossing his datapad into his bunk and hip checking Rose out of his way as he heads to the ship’s galley. A pillow comes flying at the back of his head from where Rose is standing by the bunks, but Ben lazily deflects it’s trajectory with a small push of the Force – something that’s become second nature so quickly it almost scares him, and it ends up smacking Kaydel in the face. 

“Join the team, Poe said, it’ll be _fun_ , Poe said,” the blonde grumbles as she pulls feathers off her travel garments. “Instead I’m exchanging blaster fire with stormtroopers and having pillows thrown at me.”

“In my defense, I threw it at Ben,” Rose supplies helpfully as she picks the discarded item up from the floor. 

“I have no defense,” Ben says as he pours himself a cup of caf. Kaydel just rolls her eyes. 

“Where are we headed?” Rose questions several minutes later after she’s finished making her bunk and manages to join the rest of them in the galley. Finn sits quietly in a corner, nursing a cup of caf and eating some type of breakfast ration that looks mildly like rubbery eggs. 

“Back towards D’Qar. We need to stop by the base for supplies and Poe and Ben need to do a check in with the General and High Command. But we have a pit stop first,” the operations controller informs the group from where she’s nestled into her seat. 

“Where?” the former stormtrooper asks over his cup of caf. 

“Naboo.”  
  


* * *

  
Ben knew that meeting up with Kira on the battlefield was inevitable, it’s just how things like this worked out. However, there was something disturbingly poetic about it being on the planet of both their grandparent’s origins. 

“Kriffing hell, is that _all_ of them?” Rose mumbles quietly from her hiding spot behind a boulder. 

The Knights of Sidious are spread across the torched field in the Lake Country, a variety of weapons in their possession as Kira Palpatine stands dead center with her crimson double bladed saberstaff. Ben’s not entirely sure if all the Knights are force sensitive, though he imagines they must be to some extent if they were chosen to work with the princess.

There are six knights in total, not including their leader, and they all wear similar hulking masks and layers of black fabric that look less than comfortable. 

“Yup, that’s all of them,” Finn supplies from where he lies on incinerated grass. They got lucky with where Poe managed to land them. They were naturally camouflaged by Naboo’s terrain, so they can see the Knights from their vantage point, but haven’t been spotted themselves yet. 

“Kriff.”

“You can say that again.”

“ _Kriff_.”

Poe crawls his way up to where Ben hides in front of the whole team, far enough ahead that he’ll be able to block anything that comes their way… _hopefully._

“What’s the plan, big guy?” Poe asks as Ben continues to take in the scene before them. 

Resistance fighters are engaging with stormtroopers in hand to hand, and blasters are being fired all over the place. The Knights seem to be engaging minimally, a shot here and a stab there, but appear entirely bored of this skirmish. 

Ben pats Poe on the shoulder. “There is no plan. We can’t help, not when Team Big, Bad and Ugly is front and center. We’re going to get back on our ship and head back to D’Qar.”

“We can’t just _leave_ , Solo. Those are Resistance fighters out there.”

One of the Knights impales a soldier who broke rank and ran straight for Kira. The man cries out in agony when the knight throws him across the field. He lands with a solid _thrwump_ on the ground, the screams ending abruptly. 

“If you want to get shishkabobbed, be my guest. The rest of us will be safely off planet.”

Ben gets up from where he’s crouched, not allowing himself to get to his full height, and motions to Finn and Rose to head back to the ship where Paige and Kaydel were waiting. Poe reluctantly ducks ahead of him, in the safety zone of any potentially needed Force shield that Ben might have to throw up last minute. They get mostly down the hill when they hear it, a woman’s voice loud and clear above the dying sound of battle. 

“Where do you think you’re going, Solo?” Kira calls out from the center of the pack. 

_Fuck_.

Ben stops automatically and lets out a huge sigh, shoulders slumping when he realizes that their clean getaway will be anything but. He motions for his friends to head back to the ship, firmly ignoring the concerned look on Rose’s face as Finn all but drags her away. Ben takes a minute to crack his neck and loosen his shoulders up before he turns around to make his way back up the hill and onto the outskirts of the field where the fighting had been. 

Kira has pulled away from the rest of the Knights, her helmet left discarded in her wake and both ends of her saber burning brightly in the Nabooian sun. Ben’s hand rests lightly on his blaster, and he holds tight to the walls he spent so many years constructing around his mind in the presence of other Force users. His ability was a well kept secret, only his immediate family knew of Ben’s connection to the Force - well, before his mother outed him to the High Command. Right now it’s best to keep it to himself – it’s the only element of surprise he has. 

“Sweetheart,” he drawls as Kira stops mere feet in front of him, his head cocked to the side with a hint of a smirk on his lips. 

“Trying to leave so quickly, Solo? We didn’t even have a chance to catch up,” the girl snarks, one hand on her hip while the other one gives her staff a lazy spin. 

“You looked a little preoccupied. It was good seeing you, but um… I’m gonna go,” Ben replies with a nod as he tosses a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the ship. “Friends are waiting, ya know? Don’t want to be rude.”

Kira gives him an understanding nod, almost dismissive. Ben knows better than to trust her when she waves him off, but he starts to back up regardless – his hold on the walls he’s built slowly starting to slip away so he can defend himself quickly. He focuses on only blocking her out for the time being, hoping against all hope that he can take her by surprise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying this fic so far, let me know! I love reading your comments!
> 
> You can find me on both [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/) and [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/)


	3. i washed the fear from my hands off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s still sloppier with his saber moves than he’d like to be, it had been years since he had picked his saber up before his mother handed it back to him. He does have the benefit of being much larger than her, so he uses that to his advantage. They share a series of blows, Ben edging Kira closer and closer to where his friends wait for him in hopes that he’ll get her down long enough that he can take off to the ship. 
> 
> They are both covered in sweat by the time the ship is in view, Rose and Finn waiting anxiously near the ramp. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday! I hope everyone has had a great week of social distancing! Here's a new update for your evening!

He’s only managed to move five feet before she pounces. 

Kira flips through the air, saber ignited as she lands between where he stands and where his friends are on their ship. The proud smile she gives him is almost enough to throw him completely off, but then he remembers how much she struggled when learning that move back at Uncle Luke’s Jedi Temple – always landing too far forward on her feet, face in the grass, ass up in the air- not that Ben paid attention to her ass or anything. 

“Nice trick.”

“Thought you’d like it,” she says as she lunges forward towards him, blade aimed at his neck just like last time. Except unlike last time, Ben has full use of his body and a lightsaber of his own. 

It’s clear she doesn’t realize what is happening when the two blades clash, red meeting blue in a shower of sparks that she fully is unprepared for. Kira’s eyes go wide as she takes in the metal that Ben has gripped in his hand, and it's just enough of a surprise that he easily pushes her off of him before crouching into a defensive position. 

“Nice trick,” she manages to grunt out in her fury before she lunges at him again. 

“Thought you’d like it,” he returns as he easily deflects her blow. 

He’s still sloppier with his saber moves than he’d like to be, it had been years since he had picked his saber up before his mother handed it back to him. He does have the benefit of being much larger than her, so he uses that to his advantage. They share a series of blows, Ben edging Kira closer and closer to where his friends wait for him in hopes that he’ll get her down long enough that he can take off to the ship. 

They are both covered in sweat by the time the ship is in view, Rose and Finn waiting anxiously near the ramp. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kira yells as her swings become wilder. 

“I couldn’t! I never wanted to be a Jedi, I never wanted the Force. My family was sworn to secrecy!” he shouts back as he dodges a particularly high swing towards his head. 

“Like I wanted this? This power? It’s a _curse_!” 

“You seem fine to me. You got that family you always wanted!” he taunts, and yeah, it’s a low blow but since she just grazed his ribcage he’s not interested in playing nice. 

“You scruffy-headed nerf herder! _You were my family!_ ” Kira cries as their sabers lock. 

Ben blinks down at her, dazed. “What?”

“You and Han. Even Leia and Master Luke. I thought I would be one of you, someday,” she replies hollowly as she breaks apart from him. She takes his momentary silence and kicks his feet out from under him, letting him land on his back. 

“I _thought_. I thought _you_ were my family. You more than any of them. Did you even look for me?” she asks quietly, saber pointed to his chest. 

Ben shakes his head sadly, because no, he never did look for her when Uncle Luke told them she disappeared. He knew she had run off to the First Order, and that could have had her anywhere in the galaxy.

“Rey…” he tries, before she just barely digs the tip of her saber into his shoulder. “Fuck!”

“I was always just a silly little girl huh? With a fanciful crush on a guy who was nice to her because he had to be. I thought I could be in love with you, Ben,” she spits out like viper venom, eyes full of tears. 

“I thought so too, sweetheart,” Ben says through gritted teeth as he rolls over and gets up onto his knees. “Please, come back with me. I can be your family. You were never silly, I felt it too.”

Kira – no, _Rey, now he can see the girl he loved_ – gives him a sad smile, and he feels his heart shatter when she sniffs her nose deeply and takes a deep breath, eyes turning to steel. 

“It’s too late,” she replies in that eerily calm tone of hers. 

He doesn’t even feel it when her saber lashes across his face.   
  


* * *

  
He knows he’s on the base again.

He knows his face is covered in bacta patches.

And when he opens his eyes for the first time in who-knows-how-long both his mom and dad stand over him with tear-filled, concerned eyes and relieved smiles.

“Go back to sleep son,” his dad gruffs as his mom kisses his brow.  
  


* * *

  
Ben is out of commission for… a while. Too long honestly.

His team has still been running recon missions for the Resistance but with less frequency. Rose and sometimes Paige stop by his medbay room, and later his new quarters (that are conveniently across from his mother’s) between missions to keep him up to date with their goings-on.

“More defected stormtroopers? Finn’s not the only one?” he asks as the girls regale him with the story of the Resistances newest fighters.

“A whole unit of them on Kef Bir near some of the second Death Star wreckage,” Paige explains as she tries to sneak one of the candied pears from the tin Leia had given Ben after he moved into his new room. He pulls them back from her with a huff but gives up the sweet treat when the elder Tico pouts in a way that is too much like her sister.

“Finn was so excited!” Rose sighs as she plucks a piece of candy for herself.

As if on cue, Ben and Paige both dramatically slap their hands over their hearts and practically coo _“Finn!”_ at Rose before bursting into a fit of laughter.

Rose rolls her eyes. “You two are hilarious,” she says dryly.

“When do you come back, Solo? The team’s not the same without our resident Jedi,” Paige says as she wipes a couple of tears from her eyes.

Ben would shrug his shoulders if one of them wasn’t patched together with the Resistance’s lower-grade med-tech. If he were First Order, he’d already be healed by a variety of med-droids and back on the battlefield... oh, the price of fighting the good fight.

“Dunno. Soon.”

Rose and Paige share a concerned look from the opposite sides of the beds, their silent sister telepathic communication in full swing. From what Ben can gather, the girls are having a full conversation with no actual words being used. He hates it.

“Just spit it out already,” he grumbles when he’s finally had enough.

Rose blushes, shamed faced. “We haven’t seen her... since. _You know_.”

“We haven’t seen any of them. The Knights of Sidious I mean. They have just… disappeared,” Paige finishes.

Ben _had_ wondered, if he was being perfectly honest. His last meeting with Kira – or Rey, he’s not sure – had ended rather badly. Obviously, considering the nasty scar he’s going to carry across his face for the rest of his life. It could have gone worse, he supposes, she could have killed him right then and there.

He just nods his head in acknowledgment, because what is there for him to say?

Paige takes the sudden deafening silence as her cue to make her departure, placing a soft kiss over Ben’s uninjured eye (with all the sisterly affection he probably doesn’t deserve) while saying her goodbyes. Rose however, she stays still at the end of his bed, fingers worrying her crescent moon pendant. Ben knows she has something more to say, but isn’t really in the mood to press her until she’s ready. Besides, he’s exhausted – healing a lightsaber wound is serious business. Instead of pressing her, he fiddles with his datapad instead, replying to a comm from one of the pilots. 

“Did you mean it?” she says some minutes later. Ben quirks an eyebrow, because he’s not really sure what she means.

“On Naboo, when you and Kira… um… Rey? … were fighting. She said… she said she thought she was in love with you, and you said that you thought the same thing. Finn and I, we could hear you two yelling at each other,” she explains, not once looking him in the eye.

Ben doesn’t know what to say, because anything but the truth would be unfair. He remembers everything about their screaming match on Naboo, how hurt Rey looked when he confessed he never looked for her, how vulnerable she was when she said she wanted him to be her family and especially how _pained_ she was when she admitted to loving him.

“It’s… complicated.”

Rose nods. “I remember her, you know. When Paige and I first came to the Resistance, Master Luke was visiting you and the General with this little Jedi girl who couldn’t have been more than 15 at the time. She followed you around the base like she was a lost puppy and looked at you like you created the whole galaxy especially for her. It was sweet. And then a few years later, right before everything happened - I was on that run with you and Han, remember?”

Ben shakes his head, because he truthfully does not remember more from that day than delivering that kyber crystal to Rey and how her smile lit up the temple like binary suns.

Rose smiles softly at him, before reaching out and grabbing his hand in her own and giving it a light squeeze.

“I went with you and Han because I had wanted to see a real Jedi Temple for ages, and the General finally agreed to let me tag along because there was official Resistance business that had something to do with Master Luke. I was delivering some Jedi artifact someone had picked up on a mission, and I felt so important to be granted that task. And I was going on a cool trip with my best friend on the _Millennium Falcon_. The moment we touched down outside of Master Luke’s temple, you were completely distracted.”

“Hey now,” he scoffs even if he knows she’s right.

“And I was _fine_ with it Ben. You and Rey were like… meteors in a magnetic field. Seeing you two together, it was so intimate that I couldn’t even look at you guys without blushing. Seriously, it was secondhand embarrassment from me, Chewie, Han _and_ Master Luke, but you two were so oblivious to anyone around you that you didn’t even notice.”

Ben throws his head back on his pillow, closing his eyes tightly. “Maker take me now.”

“It was sweet. And _innocent_.”

He looks up to where his best friend sits and gives her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. That I don’t even remember you being there. I’m an ass.”

“You’re right.”

He sighs again as he closes his eyes once more and leans back against his pillows.

“So. Are you going to save her?”

Ben pokes one eye open to see Rose smiling eagerly. “What?”

“Are you going to save her? That’s how we’re gonna win, Ben. Not by fighting what we hate. But saving what we love. And _who_ we love.”

“I guess I’m going to have to at least try, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on social media on both [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/) and [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/)
> 
> If you're enjoying this fic, please let me know! I love comments! Thanks for reading! See ya'll next Monday!


	4. you steal the air out of my lungs (you make me feel it)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By the time Ben embarks the Falcon, Poe and Paige are both waiting in the hanger, identical shit-eating grins spread across their faces. Ben rolls his eyes and ignores the two as they follow him through the halls of the base until he gets to his room and promptly locks them out in the hallway.
> 
> “Aw c’mon Solo, we’re just teasing!” Poe whines from behind the locked door.
> 
> “Fuck off Dameron,” Ben growls as he throws himself onto his bunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the love on the last chapter! I love how much you guys really seem to enjoy the Ben/Rose friendship in this!
> 
> Stay safe! Stay home! Here's chapter four!

“You couldn’t even give me a bit of a break huh?” he groans from where Kira kicked him into the ground.

“You’re getting old, Solo.” Kira circles him menacingly, twin blades twirling in a lazy spin.

This is the fourth time they’ve met in a skirmish since the first on Naboo, nearly half a year ago- and the fourth time she’s handed his ass to him on a silver platter. He likes to think he’s getting better, lasting longer in a fight against her, but Kira Palpatine seems to take such pleasure in beating him that it makes her fight dirtier than even the typical darksider.

“I dunno, I think I’m doing pretty good for thirty. Girls _really_ seem to dig the scar,” he grunts as he lifts himself up from the ground.

Kira’s blade stops abruptly as she looks at him, dumbstruck. “You’re not thirty yet.”

“Tell that to my aching bones, princess.”

“I- but… your birthday…”

“Was celebrated on a Resistance base last month. I would have invited you, but you’re kinda hard to track down these days.” He seizes what may very well be his only opportunity to get the advantage in this fight, using a Force pull to bring her right up into his personal space. She looks up at him with bewildered eyes as he stares down at her with a smirk, physically grabbing her unlit saberstaff from her loose grasp.

“I can’t believe that worked,” he mumbles – mostly to himself – as they continue to stare at each other intensely. Kira blinks up at him softly before she snaps out of it, her face jumping from confused to embarrassed before finally settling on anger. She reaches out for the weapon, but he simply holds it up over his head, out of the way of her reach.

“That’s my saber,” she says in a way that reminds him of her at seventeen, hating how he would tease her.

He simply holds the weapon tighter and rises on his tip toes.

“Give it back, Solo! This isn’t funny!”

“You’re right. It’s _very_ immature of me,” he taunts as he takes a step back from her when she lunges for her weapon.

It’s completely undignified of him as the Prince of Alderaan to take off running with her saberstaff, laughing at her frustration as he goes, but he does it anyway. He knows she’s seconds from remembering that she can manipulate the Force just as easily as he can, but it feels good to be _play_ fighting instead of _real_ fighting for a minute. Kira surprises the hell out of him when she gives him chase through the jungle terrain on whatever mid-rim planet they have found themselves on, Force abilities abandoned as she laughs after him.

Ben stops when he reaches the clearing he was instructed to find, just a little winded from the speed he had to maintain to stay out of her grasp, and waits for Kira to come tumbling out of the jungle. He checks the chrono on his wrist, noting that his ride was late - _go figure -_ and looks up impatiently at the sky.

“Waiting for someone?” Kira questions as soon as she makes her way past the low brush.

“Ride’s late. You know how it is.” He thumbs the activator on one end of her weapon, the red blade screaming to life as he gives it an experimental twirl. Kira’s eyes narrow on him as he does the same to the other side.

“Give it back, Solo.”

He ignores her. “You know, I think you had the right idea here. Double sided saberstaffs seem much more useful than a single blade. They say Maul used one like this back when your grandfather wanted to kidnap my grandmother during her reign as Queen of Naboo.”

“It was Emperor Palpatine’s idea actually. The design _is_ similar to that of Darth Maul's blade.”

Ben makes a face. “He makes you call him that?”

“Why are you trying to distract me?”

Ben shrugs, eyes scanning the sky as he finally sees a familiar ship coming his way. He switches the blades off as Kira leaps at him, managing to knock both of them to the ground as they grapple for the weapon. When they settle, he’s on top of her, their bodies pressed together as one of his hands wraps around both her wrists while the other holds tight to her saberstaff. Both of them are panting from the exertion as he settles in the place between her thighs.

“Am I interrupting something?” Han Solo shouts from the end of the Falcons ramp where it’s hovering several feet off the ground.

Kira is looking up at Ben with the biggest eyes he’s ever seen - pupils blown out with lust - and his throat becomes inexplicably dry.

“Ben,” she whines beneath him, completely breathless and back arching. And yeah, no that’s no good, because he feels his dick twitch to life as she rolls her hips up towards his.

“Fuck,” he mutters before he jumps up and takes off to the Falcon. He takes a running jump, and with the aid of some Force energy, he lands neatly on the ramp beside his pops.

“Care to explain, kid?” his father asks with a wry grin.

“Nope,” Ben replies, eyebrows raised as he refuses to meet his father’s eyes and wills his dick to calm down.

Kira is still laying on the ground as they hover over the field. It would be so easy to grab her, to bring her back with them, but he knows that’s a choice she has to make on her own. Ben looks down at the saberstaff still clutched in his hands and makes an outstandingly stupid decision.

“Sweetheart!” he calls out as Kira looks up at them, resting on her elbows. He makes eye contact with her before giving her the slightest of nods and tosses the saber back at her. “Keep a better grip on this next time!”

The darksider smiles, briefly, in response before taking off the other way, back towards her own transport. Ben follows Han up the ramp into the ship as Chewie sets their course for whatever moon the Resistance is based on these days.

“I’ll uh… keep that between us Solo men,” Han says awkwardly with a pat on Ben’s shoulder as he brushes past him to head to the cockpit.

Ben would give his thanks, but he knows his pops well enough to know at the very least the Tico sisters and probably Poe- _Fucking-_ Dameron will have heard about it before they make planetfall.  
  


* * *

  
By the time Ben embarks the Falcon, Poe and Paige are both waiting in the hanger, identical shit-eating grins spread across their faces. Ben rolls his eyes and ignores the two as they follow him through the halls of the base until he gets to his room and promptly locks them out in the hallway.

“Aw c’mon Solo, we’re just teasing!” Poe whines from behind the locked door.

“Fuck off Dameron,” Ben growls as he throws himself onto his bunk.

His data pad blinks with unread messages, and he would rather deal with _anything_ other than what could be on there, but four of the messages are from Rose and if he doesn’t respond she’ll be knocking on his door within minutes.

**_Rose: Han should know better. Gossip on base spreads so fast. kriff Ben, I’m sorry._ **

**_Rose: heads up, but Poe and Paige decided to wait out the Falcon in the hanger. They are tracking your ETA._ **

**_Rose: Hello? Ben? Are you ignoring me? Did you leave your data pad here again? I’m headed to your rooms to look._ **

**_Rose: Of course, you left your data pad on charge in your room. The General is here too and looks disappointed. Come find me before your mother blasts you to space dust alright?_ **

Ben types out a quick reply asking Rose to meet him in the dining hall in an hour. Her reply is nearly immediate, letting him know she’ll see him there. He spends the next hour clearing out his inbox, replying to various comms that he missed while off world while steadfastly ignoring all the ones from his mother (she knew he was with Han, she could have gotten a hold of him in an emergency). Just as he’s grabbing his jacket to head out the door to meet up with Rose, an encrypted message pops up in his mostly clear inbox.

Now, encrypted messages aren’t entirely uncommon these days -they are in the midst of an intergalactic war after all. But this one left Ben scratching his head, because after running through the standard list of Resistance codes used to open a message like this, the message still sits locked in his inbox.

“Huh,” he murmurs to himself while pocketing his data pad and heading off to meet Rose. Maybe she’ll be able to crack the code.  
  


* * *

  
“It’s not like I’m a Master Code Breaker or anything, Ben.” Rose tinkers with his data pad several weeks later while their team is in transit to the old Rebel base on Crait. The General and the rest of the High Command wanted to reestablish use of the stronghold and Ben’s team was requested to do the requisite sweep of the planet before they would allow any of their forces to start the process of making the long abandoned mineral planet habitable again. 

“It’s been weeks. No other messages have come in from that line in the meantime. What if it was a mistake?” Ben replies as he contemplates his next Dejarik move against Finn.

Jannah, one of the former ‘troopers from Kef Bir, shakes her head at him from where she peers over Rose’s shoulder. “Unlikely, Solo. You have a secured comm line as a member of the Resistance.”

Ben runs a hand through his hair. “Ummmm…”

Rose drops the datapad on to the table and glares up at Ben. “What does _umm_ mean? Don’t tell me it means what I think it means.”

“Fine.” Ben works his jaw and finishes a beat later. “I won’t tell you.”

“You’ve been answering Resistance comms from an unsecured data pad? Are you crazy? You could probably be court marshalled!” Rose whisper yells at him, cautious of Poe’s presence as always.

“It’s secured.”

Jannah smirks. “Yeah, for a smuggler.”

Ben turns back to Finn. “Are you gonna just let them gang up on me?”

Finn looks between the two women and Ben before raising his hands up in a peace offering. “I’m staying out of this.”

“Thank you,” Rose replies pointed before turning back on Ben. “Who had contact with this line?”

Ben shrugs. “It’s not like my pops was using the thing. I never made a deal with Kanjiklub, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Rose and Jannah share a soft look, one that Ben promises he’ll mentally dissect later, before Rose gives him a hopeful smile.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a seventeen-year-old Jedi apprentice?”

Ben all but flies out of his seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's my social media if you want to come scream with me about like... everything. [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/) [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/)
> 
> See ya'll next week for the last chapter and the coda!


	5. change me at all cost (starlight and star-crossed)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I thought you’d never figure it out.” Kira sits in the shadows of the Jedi temple she had nearly laid to ruin four years ago - the exact spot she had agreed to meet Ben when he finally cracked the code.
> 
> “I didn’t,” Ben replies honestly. “Rose did.”
> 
> The darksider gives him a bittersweet smile. “Always the brains of the operation, that one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh! This is it! The last BIG update! There's a ending coda thats about 600 words or so that will be posted on Thursday. 
> 
> Thank you all for the love on this! Writing it post TROS was very therapeutic for me, so I hope reading it has been the same for ya'll. 
> 
> Happy Monday! Stay safe, stay home!

“I thought you’d _never_ figure it out.” Kira sits in the shadows of the Jedi temple she had nearly laid to ruin four years ago - the exact spot she had agreed to meet Ben when he finally cracked the code.

“I didn’t,” Ben replies honestly. “Rose did.”

The darksider gives him a bittersweet smile. “Always the brains of the operation, that one.”

Ben nods. “You remember her?”

“Of course,” Kira scoffs. “I used to be _so_ jealous of Rose. For the longest time I thought myself your only friend, and then this girl shows up and suddenly every other comm was about her. It took me a while to realize I was more jealous of her freedom, that she could spend time with you if or when she wanted.”

“You could have left. Uncle Luke would have understood,” Ben says quietly as he settles himself down on the mossy ground next to her.

“First of all, it’s _hilarious_ you think that Master Luke would have let me just walk. Second of all, what was I supposed to do? An orphan girl from Jakku who failed at Jedi school isn’t exactly anyone’s first choice.”

"You’d have been mine.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I _never_ lie to you. Han and I would have been here in a heartbeat if you had told us that the Jedi path wasn’t for you, you know that, kid.”

Kira ignores him. “This is where he told me, you know? He told me he had known since he found me in the desert as a child, that little old Rey of Jakku was actually Kira Palpatine, long lost granddaughter of the Emperor, recently returned from the dead.”

Ben can’t help the laugh that escapes from between his lips. “How, exactly, did _that_ happen?”

Kira looks over at him, her hazel eyes stormy. “Contingency plans were put in place during the Galactic Civil War. The Emperor desired immortality and the only way to achieve that was through a mixture of cloning and Sith relics.”

“So his body…?”

“Is a clone essentially. His spirit resides in a holocron of sorts, one he wears around his neck.”

Ben nods at this new - and surprising - information. When he had finally opened the encoded message all it said was that she was willing to meet somewhere because she wanted to discuss something important. Foolishly, he had hoped that she had decided to turn from the dark side, to be _Rey_ again, to be with him.

“Why are you telling me this?” he questions.

She smiles, a real, genuine thing that crinkles her eyes and nearly blinds him. Suddenly, it’s Rey back in front of him, _finally._ “You’re going to help me kill him, Ben, and then we can be done with all of this. The Sith, the Jedi. Everything.”

Ben grins back. “You’re serious.”

“I’m tired. Of war. Of missing you. Of being alone,” Rey tells him, tears welling up in her eyes as her voice cracks.

Later he won't entirely remember how he ended up with Rey in his lap, or how much time they spent there tangled up in each other. But he will remember wiping the tears off her cheeks, how soft her skin was under his touch, and how she still smelled exactly the same as she did four years prior. He’ll never forget how it felt for her fingers to card through his hair for the first time, or the sense of elation he felt as she pressed her lips to every inch of her scar that ran down his face as they made their apologies.

“You’re not alone,” he reminds her as he cradles the back of her head, pressing their foreheads together.

“And neither are you,” she replies as her fingers clutch at the front of his shirt, pulling him in closer.

When their lips meet for the first time, the Force sings.  
  


* * *

  
“How do we know this isn’t a First Order trap?” Amilyn asks from her spot across the table. She keeps looking between Rey’s hand engulfed by Ben’s large paw and Leia, who looked pleased as punch over this development.

“Rey, is this a trap?” his mother asks bluntly.

“No ma’am. I’m renouncing my grandfather and everything to do with him and the First Order. I’m ready to come home.” She says the last part directly to Ben, her megawatt smile burning brightly. He could kiss her, _would_ kiss her, if they weren’t surrounded by the Resistance High Command.

The General looks around the room at her colleagues before declaring that Rey’s answer is “good enough for her” and that she’s “known the girl for years, she’s not a liar” and finally ending the outraged objections with “my word is final, and if you want to continue to argue, go find a new rebellion to work with.”

The disgruntled High Command leaves the conference room one by one until just Ben, Rey and the General are left.

“Thank you, General,” Ben tells his mother sincerely as she settles down in her chair across from them.

“There still might be repercussions, so don’t thank me just yet, Ben. The First Order has caused a lot of damage over these last few years.”

Ben feels Rey tense next to him. “Rey’s not at fault,” he starts before the girl next to him squeezes his hand.

“I’ll accept your conditions, General. As long as you allow me to fight for you now, alongside Ben.”

The General rubs her temple with two fingers, her eyes closed tightly as she seems to contemplate something.

“If you two manage to make it back to us, I promise I’ll fight for you too, Rey. Keep my son and yourself alive, and I’ll do what I have to in order to allow you two a future.”

“Mom...” Ben says quietly. Rey’s eyes fill with tears as she nods aggressively.

Leia Organa smiles softly at them in the way that reminds Ben of his childhood, of the precious moments where she was just his mother and not a senator or royalty of some long dead planet or a war hero.

Their moment of peace is broken when Han Solo and Chewbacca make their less than graceful way into the Generals office. The wookiee pulls the young Jedi girl from Ben’s grasp before swinging her around the room while they chatter joyfully. Han places a hand on Ben’s shoulder, giving him a gruff yet affectionate squeeze.

“You brought her home, kid. Good job.”

Ben pats his father’s hand with his own. “Thanks, pops.”  


* * *

  
“It doesn’t matter _what_ we do if we don’t give Ben and Rey every opportunity to take out the Emperor,” General Organa reminds the war council as they make their plan of attack.

“Luke Skywalker defeated him last time, if we had him back…” some low-ranking official mumbles.

The General pins him with a glare. “ _Anakin_ Skywalker defeated the Emperor. Darth Vader was a terrible man, he destroyed my home planet while simultaneously killing my parents, he caused pain throughout the galaxy, but in the end he did make the right choice. He saved his son and in the process brought himself to the light. It was _Anakin_ , and all his faults, who saved Luke and helped us win our rebellion.”

Ben looks around the war room as it falls into stunned silence. His mother hardly ever discusses her biological father, so he’s nearly as surprised as the rest of the group.

His father clears his throat awkwardly. “Wherever Luke has run off to, he’ll show up eventually. We have two perfectly good Jedi in my son and dau- _Rey_ ,” he finishes as he stumbles over how to refer to Rey. She’s not his daughter-in-law… not yet at least if Ben has any say in this.

“Protect the big guy and little jedi girl at all costs, got it General,” Poe says with a wink thrown Ben’s way for good measure.

“Then give them hell rebels,” his mother says with a dismissive nod as people start leaving to make preparations for the impending battle. “May the Force be with you.”  


* * *

  
Ben hurts, _everywhere_. He’s certain Rey is doing no better than he is, if her labored breathing indicates anything.

“You good?” he asks after they take down the last of the Knights of Sidious. 

“Been worse,” is her only reply. The doors in front of them open to the Emperor's throne room.

The cloned figure of Sheev Palpatine sits on his throne, deep in the shadows on this fortress planet somewhere in wild space. They wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for the rebels - the Force has been on their side, sure, but the support of the Resistances ground forces and X-Wing pilots and the stormtroopers who turned their weapons on their superiors at the urging of Finn and Jannah have kept the tide of the war on their side throughout the whole battle.

Now they just have to defeat the Emperor, and this whole thing can be done.

The once-man cackles from his throne.  
  
“Granddaughter, you’ve brought him here to me. Well done, Kira,” the Emperor croons darkly as Rey steps away from Ben and moves to kneel in front of the throne, one fist placed on the small of her back. 

_What the fuck is happening?_

“I sense your confusion, young Solo. Did you think my Kira would have been able to turn from me? For _you_? Your father is a scoundrel, your mother a failed politician. They feared you and your powers, made you hide them from the world. You are no true Jedi.”

“Rey?” he says quietly as the woman he loves keeps her head bowed in submission. Ben flexes his fingers around the lightsaber clutched in his hand.

“She’s not for you, Solo. Rey of Jakku no longer exists. She’s Kira Palpatine now, mine fully.”

“Rey,” Ben tries again, his voice a little more desperate. “Whatever your plan is, you probably should have filled me in on it kid.”

Rey makes no move to stand up. Ben wants to run to her, to shake her, to make sense of this - and still he waits, because deep down he trusts her.

“Long I have waited, and now your coming together will be your undoing,” the Emperor cackles as he rises from his throne, a motion Ben only catches in his peripheral vision because his eyes are glued to where Rey’s fist opens behind her and signals him.

_Five…  
  
_ The Emperor takes a step off his dais and stands directly in front of Rey…  
  
 _Four…  
  
_ Ben moves his thumb to his ignition switch…  
  
 _Three…  
  
_ Palpatine raises his hands, force lighting cackling in the air…  
  
 _Two…_  
  
Ben takes a deep breath and readies himself for whatever his girl has planned, prays to the Maker that it works…

_One._

Immediately Rey is up on her feet, her double sided blade ignited as she aims herself at Palpatine. Ben’s at her side in an instant.

“You’re wrong, grandfather. Our coming together is _your_ undoing.”

The Emperor doesn’t even have time to react, Rey cuts loose the necklace that holds her grandfathers spirit while Ben stomps on the artifact. The clone screams in agony as the two Jedi simultaneously plunge their sabers into his chest, the husk of the thing that used to be Darth Sidious disintegrating into a pile of ash.

Rey drops her weapon and sinks to the ground in tears. Ben falls to his knees, drapes himself over her fragile figure.

“It’s over,” she says in disbelief. Ben presses kisses to every bit of skin on her face.

“Almost, sweetheart, almost.”

Rey threads her shaking fingers through Ben's hair and pulls him down to meet her mouth. This kiss is unlike all the innocent ones they have shared in the last few days, her lips are greedy for his as her tongue plunges into his mouth to taste him. Ben kisses her back just as fiercely, his hand on the back of her neck as he holds her there to keep the connection as his other hand roams freely.

Until he can hear Rose in his earpiece.

“We’re outside the throne room according to the map Rey drew us. We don’t hear anything Ben, do you guys need our backup? What’s going on?”

Ben groans as he pulls away from Rey before forcing himself to stand up, helping his girl get to her feet.

“Yeah, Rose, it’s done. We’re coming,” he says in his own earpiece in explanation for the benefit of Rey’s confused expression.

“Your friends are here,” Rey clarifies as Ben tucks her into his side, both sabers attached to his belt.

“No. _Our_ friends are here, and we have a war to go finish,” he replies, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

Rey’s smile is as blinding as a dying star.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO! When the PALPS IS A CLONE information came to light, weddersins and I completely lost it, because I had this fic wrapped up for about a month or so already. It was the only explanation I could come up with at the time, so I ran with it, having no idea that apparently it was the same thought as a TROS team. Dunno if I'm pleased with that?
> 
> I am on both [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/) and [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/) if you want to come scream into the void with me!


	6. nothing is you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben stands next to his best friend as she wears a stunning gown of white with flowers woven into her hair. Her face is split into a beautiful smile, matching the woman she’s promising to swear her life to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, the very end. It's just a short bit, wrapping things up properly. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, given kudos, and recommended this little fic. I truly appreciate it more than anyone could know. I wrote this fic while deep in Post-TROS grief while also packing up my whole life to move 2k+ miles away, and I'm posting this last chapter was I start week 6 of stay at home orders due to a global pandemic. It's been wild. 
> 
> Once again I'd like to express my endless gratitude to [weddersins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weddersins/pseuds/Weddersins/) for being a dream beta and a dream friend! 
> 
> And with that, enjoy this last bit! Stay safe and stay healthy friends!

_coda._

Ben stands next to his best friend as she wears a stunning gown of white with flowers woven into her hair. Her face is split into a beautiful smile, matching the woman she’s promising to swear her life to.

Ben’s own wedding was much simpler. He and Rey had snuck off some months after the war’s end, shortly after his mother had successfully fought for Rey’s freedom, to a chapel in Naboo to share their vows in private. They enjoyed a week to themselves at Varykino before meeting up with their friends on some planet where the newly formed Third Galactic Republic had decided to hold their first major intergalactic post-war conference.

His mother was upset, of course. His father pretended to be for his wife’s sake but shared a wink with Ben and Rey over Leia’s head that caused the newlyweds to burst into laughter.

“We’ve been through so much together,” Rose starts, bringing Ben back to the present. “We fought a war side by side, you kissed me for the first time on a battlefield as X-Wings were shooting down Tie-Fighters around us. We helped each other learn to forgive, which was a hard lesson for both of us.”  
  
 _“Let the past die, kill it if you have to.” He whispers softly to his wife as he feels her anxiety spike the closer they get to Ahch-To. They had finally done it, they had found where Luke had run off to all those years ago, and they were going to make their peace.  
  
“He’s going to hate me. I destroyed his temple, Ben. I ruined our home because I was angry - because Master Luke told me the truth about who I am.”  
  
“Hey now, sweetheart, don’t do that. Uncle Luke, he should have told you from the start, but it’s all in the past Rey.”  
  
_Ben looks out at the modest crowd, to where his wife sits next to Kaydel, her eyes already brimming with tears. Rey raises a single hand in a tiny wave when their eyes connect across the room. Ben tosses her a wink before turning his attention back on the brides.   
  
“I thought we were going to die, that day I first kissed you, and I didn’t want to lose my only chance ,” Jannah laughs. The guests are mostly Resistance members, and a small wave of agreement rises up in the crowd. “But we’re still here. We won, Rose, we won so much more than a war, because we got each other.”  
  
 _“I failed you Rey. As your master, as your family. I will never regret anything as much as I have regretted keeping your lineage from you. Please forgive me.” Luke Skywalker is an old man now, grey and tired and oh so weary. Ben thinks he’s aged twenty years at least in the last five.  
  
His wife simply throws her arms around his uncle and sobs her forgiveness while begging for his in return.   
  
_The brides exchange their rings and raise their clasped hands in triumph after they kiss and are announced wife and wife to the cheers of the crowd. Ben finds himself giving them a loud whistle as they retreat down the aisle before giving his arm to Paige and following down their path.   
  
Rey finds him some minutes later, two glasses of Corellian whiskey in hand. His wife wraps her free arm securely around his waist and rests her head on his chest as they watch their friends do a traditional dance from Hays Minor. Ben presses a kiss into the crown of Rey’s head, causing her to tip her face up and catch his mouth with hers.   
  
“I love you,” she murmurs as they part.  
  
Ben grins. “I love you too.”  
  
How this is his life, he’ll never really be sure, but he thanks the Maker everyday that it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to screech into the void about many things. If you'd like to do that with me, you can find me on both [twitter](https://twitter.com/_starlux/) and [tumblr](https://starlux-s.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Thank you once again for all the love on this fic. I have a new fic coming soon!


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